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Friday, May 24, 2013

Around The World: Kayla @ Bibliophilia Please

Welcome to Around The World! On Friday I feature a Blogger, Author or Publisher and ask questions about the country or state they are from and what it is like to be a member of the book world there! If you are interested in being featured please sign up here.

Where are you from? I am from Louisiana, which is one of the southern gulf coast states of the US if you’re an international or geographically-impaired reader like myself (geographically-impaired, that is). No, I do not know nor am I related to anyone on Swamp People or Duck Dynasty, though I have the same hometown as Mrs. Kay. I grew up with many of her relatives, and yes I’ve seen Phil and Kay in person before. I always seem to have to get this out of the way when I meet someone new because of those wonderful *snorts* reality shows.

Emily: That is so cool! I actually recently started watching Duck Dynasty after a friend raved about how addictive it is.

What is the best and worst thing about living in the country you are from?The best thing about living in the US is that I have endless opportunities, if I am willing to work hard to reach my goal. The best thing about my corner of the US is the food and culture here in Louisiana. I’m not going to give you a history lesson, but I’ll just say Mardi Gras and gumbo are two things that make me very happy.

I can’t really decide on the worst thing because there is always positive and negative aspects about anywhere you go. I can’t even say the weather here in LA because if I don’t like it, it’ll be different next week. I guess I’ll have to go with the fact that I am unable to drive to Europe. I’d love to go, but I can’t exactly hop in my car and make a day trip of it.

What is the biggest challenge of being a book blogger there? I guess it would be the lack of a support system. There may be other bloggers in the area in which I live, but I have never heard of one. With my crazy schedule, I can’t exactly spend a lot of time on social media making friends with other bloggers. We also don’t have many local authors, so we generally get skipped over when authors tour. However, I did get to go to the Ashley Elston’s launch for The Rules for Disappearing in Shreveport, and it was a lot of fun.

Are you able to go to book signings, launches, or industry events? I have gone to a few, if I’m able to fit it into my work schedule. As I said before, there aren’t a lot here. I went to Authors After Dark in New Orleans back in August 2012 (where the picture was taken), and I’ve been to a handful of signings. Now that I don’t work on Saturdays, I’m going to try to make day trips to nearby, larger markets that host book signings. I’m going to pinch pennies and finagle babysitters so I can hopefully go to ALA in Las Vegas next summer.

Are Publishers willing to work with you were you live? I’m still a relatively new blogger, so I don’t have many publisher contacts. I don’t request many books through their publicity department – mainly just tours and digital resources. I still get a fair number of books, so I guess the answer is yes. I guess it helps that I’m in management in a fairly large library system.

Do you have any favorite books set in the country you are from or written by authors who are from the country you are from? Since the US is so freakin’ massive, I’m going to pretend that this is a Louisiana question. I get super excited when I read a book and know all of the settings. I recently read the above-mentioned The Rules for Disappearing, and it was exciting because I went to Northwestern in Natchitoches my freshman year of college. Another favorite of mine set in Louisiana is The Worthy by Will Clarke. I love dark humor, and the book is so bad. I would be ashamed of myself if I didn’t mention The Southern Vampire Chronicles aka the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. The imaginary setting of the books are about an hour from where I live, so experiencing the series was a lot of fun.

A Few Of My Favorite Things Section:

Favorite Book (overall): Today it’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Favorite Book Recent Release: The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau (out June 4th)Author: Stephen KingSocial Media: Twitter because it keeps me from being too rambly/awkwardInternational Food: Chicken tikka masala or pita and tzatziki

Emily: Kayla thanks so much for stopping by today! It was awesome learning about Louisiana and your blogging experiences.